VWL Groupies & Lovers Thread (Special Collectors Edition 2.0) updated 21 June 2023

[jimmytammy]

Whoops
Got ahead of myself

 

[Disney loving Iowan]

View attachment 820319View attachment 820320
Well as you can see boy I got a special gift from our beloved home.
Tammy and our kids surprised me with this picture that as you can see hung over beds at VWL before the name change took place

That is awesome!!!!!

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

Merry Christmas Groupies!!!

Made it back from my DL/Aulani/Hawaii Cruise trip in the wee hours of the morning yesterday. Been resting since as I of course managed to pick up something along the way. Really good trip though!

Shortish run down:
-DVC at DLH hotel - was nice. They're still working out some issues with the building but I do like the DLH and enjoyed the stay there.
-DL at Christmas time. Simply the best and I had a smile on my face getting back there for it. IASW and HM overlays are great. My ride on the Matterhorn - still the most awful rollercoaster but a must do for nostalgia if your back can still hold up for it.
-Aulani - seems like maybe they're getting back up to full staffing? Or close. It was busy and showing signs of needing some TLC it will get in its upcoming refurb. My one complaint that isn't unique to Aulani, still no room service. Come on Disney! They did offer it at DLH though so I was expecting it back at Aulani for some reason.
-NCL island cruise. Enjoyable to get a stop at all the islands. It had been awhile since I'd been to Kauai and the Big Island.

During travel back I discovered where the Grinch was hanging out.....in Long Beach, CA, as an official with the authority to say nay to a request for an after 10pm airline takeoff. We had to wait for incoming pilots and would have been pushing back at 10:03 PM instead of our original schedule of 8:45 PM. Apparently they do often get approval in those cases for an exception to a 10PM curfew Long Beach has but not that night. Riots were close to ensuing with the passengers as this was Dec 23rd. Then Santa must have taken over or the Grinch happily found his heart and approx 5 minutes later we got the ok. Whew!

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

My Dad had a stroke Mon eve. He is in the hospital for monitoring at this point. Once out he will need OT and PT. Fortunately, he didnt have a lot of physical damage, he can still walk on his own. He has lost peripheral vision on left side and his face is a bit drooped, so it caused his speech to be slurry, and he is having trouble eating.
My Dad is 92 and was still still working so this is a shock to us all!

*Update* Im just getting around to sending this, but he is coming home in a couple hours.

If any of you would be willing I sure would appreciate pryers on his behalf. His name is Ray

Wishing your Dad a speedy recovery Jimmy!

Merry Christmas to all! Love my tree skirt so much, because it reminds me of the lodge of course, that I even use it with my little tree. It’s a strange Christmas this year. My dad passed away in November and my granddaughter is out of town with her dad’s family. But we are seeing our daughter tomorrow and will celebrate with our little one when she returns. Wishing everyone small joys! Love this group. It is the only one, except for a photo group, that I check almost every day.
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Always difficult missing loved ones during the Holidays. Sympathies on the passing of your Dad. Exactly 21 years ago I was doing a 1 day turn around trip from visiting my parents before Christmas to returning to be with my Dad in his last days.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

View attachment 820319View attachment 820320
Well as you can see boy I got a special gift from our beloved home.
Tammy and our kids surprised me with this picture that as you can see hung over beds at VWL before the name change took place

Ok - that is AWESOME!

 

[Granny]

Merry Christmas Groupies!!!

Made it back from my DL/Aulani/Hawaii Cruise trip in the wee hours of the morning yesterday. Been resting since as I of course managed to pick up something along the way. Really good trip though!

Kat...hope you are recovered or well on your way to feeling 100%. Sounds like you had a nice trip with a balance of land and sea. Thanks for sharing your impressions of DLH and Aulani.

 

[Granny]

Well as you can see boy I got a special gift from our beloved home.
Tammy and our kids surprised me with this picture that as you can see hung over beds at VWL before the name change took place

Jimmy...well Tammy and the kids know how to shop for you! That's an awesome gift. Have you figured out the place of honor you want to put this in your home? Or are you going to hide it in your workshop and hog it to yourself!

 

[Disney loving Iowan]

Merry Christmas Groupies!!!

Made it back from my DL/Aulani/Hawaii Cruise trip in the wee hours of the morning yesterday. Been resting since as I of course managed to pick up something along the way. Really good trip though!

Shortish run down:
-DVC at DLH hotel - was nice. They're still working out some issues with the building but I do like the DLH and enjoyed the stay there.
-DL at Christmas time. Simply the best and I had a smile on my face getting back there for it. IASW and HM overlays are great. My ride on the Matterhorn - still the most awful rollercoaster but a must do for nostalgia if your back can still hold up for it.
-Aulani - seems like maybe they're getting back up to full staffing? Or close. It was busy and showing signs of needing some TLC it will get in its upcoming refurb. My one complaint that isn't unique to Aulani, still no room service. Come on Disney! They did offer it at DLH though so I was expecting it back at Aulani for some reason.
-NCL island cruise. Enjoyable to get a stop at all the islands. It had been awhile since I'd been to Kauai and the Big Island.

During travel back I discovered where the Grinch was hanging out.....in Long Beach, CA, as an official with the authority to say nay to a request for an after 10pm airline takeoff. We had to wait for incoming pilots and would have been pushing back at 10:03 PM instead of our original schedule of 8:45 PM. Apparently they do often get approval in those cases for an exception to a 10PM curfew Long Beach has but not that night. Riots were close to ensuing with the passengers as this was Dec 23rd. Then Santa must have taken over or the Grinch happily found his heart and approx 5 minutes later we got the ok. Whew!

Sorry you picked up something you didn't want to on the trip. Hope you feel better soon. Thank you for the trip review. I'm glad that the grinch found his heart lol

 

[ClaraOswald]

We are 25 days away from checking into BRV. We'll be in a studio and a month or two ago, I put in a request for lake-side with a lower floor.

Should I do online check-in at some point? Or wait and check-in when we arrive? Not sure if one way has better luck of getting room requests.

 

[Mle8308]

We are 25 days away from checking into BRV. We'll be in a studio and a month or two ago, I put in a request for lake-side with a lower floor.

Should I do online check-in at some point? Or wait and check-in when we arrive? Not sure if one way has better luck of getting room requests.

You can do online check-in and if you get a room text that your room is ready and like the location, you can go directly there. If you arrive earlier and have not received a text, I would stop at the FD and tell them what you had requested and they can check to see if it is at least close to your requests. If not, they may be able to move some things around. If you get the text with your room number and you don't really care for the location, don't go to the room (using a site like Touring Plans that has floor layouts is very helpful, so you can be familiar with room numbers and their locations), stop at the FD to see if it can be moved - also tell them you did not enter the room. You may have to wait, possibly a few hours, that will be for you to decide if it's worth it. Unfortunately, because BRV is DVC, they are always at nearly 100% occupancy which gives the room assigners fewer rooms to use. There are rarely vacant rooms, so they can only assign rooms that are departing on the day you check in. And out of all the studios, there may only be 8 checking out. If they are all woods view or higher floor studios, there is little the FD can do. They can't assign a room they don't have. I have found they will do their best to get you what you want!

 

[MsChristy12]

Hi groupies! Hope everyone had a very joyful Christmas!

We just came home from Oahu/Aulani couple weeks ago and it was a great trip overall. One negative thing we put in the survey is that, we wish their characters meet n greet times can be posted earlier, instead of the day of. Because of that, we missed Stitch TWICE because we had plans already exploring the island and it wasn't worth it to switch things around just for that.

Before Aulani, we stayed at the Turtle Bay Resort up in North Shore for 3 nights and that was absolutely amazing! If you're going to Oahu and able to splurge 2-3 nights there, I highly recommend it and it is worth the splurge! I love Disney, Aulani is awesome but Turtle Bay is a completely different vibe, it's a whole different vacation from Honolulu. If you stay at Aulani first, Turtle Bay would be a vacation from your Aulani vacation, a perfect way to end your trip there.

 

[ClaraOswald]

You can do online check-in and if you get a room text that your room is ready and like the location, you can go directly there. If you arrive earlier and have not received a text, I would stop at the FD and tell them what you had requested and they can check to see if it is at least close to your requests. If not, they may be able to move some things around. If you get the text with your room number and you don't really care for the location, don't go to the room (using a site like Touring Plans that has floor layouts is very helpful, so you can be familiar with room numbers and their locations), stop at the FD to see if it can be moved - also tell them you did not enter the room. You may have to wait, possibly a few hours, that will be for you to decide if it's worth it. Unfortunately, because BRV is DVC, they are always at nearly 100% occupancy which gives the room assigners fewer rooms to use. There are rarely vacant rooms, so they can only assign rooms that are departing on the day you check in. And out of all the studios, there may only be 8 checking out. If they are all woods view or higher floor studios, there is little the FD can do. They can't assign a room they don't have. I have found they will do their best to get you what you want!

Thanks, very helpful! Our flight doesn't land until 4pm and using Mears, I suspect it will be a while before we arrive. So I'm guessing our room will be assigned before then if we do online check-in.

I had an email yesterday with a part that made it look like I could check-in already. I didn't click it though. I assume that 24 days in advance is far too early to check in, right?!

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

Thanks, very helpful! Our flight doesn't land until 4pm and using Mears, I suspect it will be a while before we arrive. So I'm guessing our room will be assigned before then if we do online check-in.

I had an email yesterday with a part that made it look like I could check-in already. I didn't click it though. I assume that 24 days in advance is far too early to check in, right?!

You can check in practically from the time you make the reservation. lol I don't think that it makes a difference one way or the other when you do it.

 

[Pens Fan]

Thanks, very helpful! Our flight doesn't land until 4pm and using Mears, I suspect it will be a while before we arrive. So I'm guessing our room will be assigned before then if we do online check-in.

I had an email yesterday with a part that made it look like I could check-in already. I didn't click it though. I assume that 24 days in advance is far too early to check in, right?!

We always do online check in as we'd rather not have to make a trip to the front desk on arrival day. As the previous poster noted you can check in anytime after you make the reservation, but I'll add one thing. When you do online check in do not make any room requests. The ones they are offer are very limited, and they could override the requests you have already made. Just leave that section blank.

 

[ClaraOswald]

Thanks, all! I had no idea we could check-in so far in advance. I think I'll still wait until maybe a week or so out.

I'm sitting on the DAS chat right now. Fun fun! (A slightly different process than DAS for Disneyland. So far, I think the Disneyland process is superior.)

 

[Disney loving Iowan]

Thanks, all! I had no idea we could check-in so far in advance. I think I'll still wait until maybe a week or so out.

I'm sitting on the DAS chat right now. Fun fun! (A slightly different process than DAS for Disneyland. So far, I think the Disneyland process is superior.)

Let me know what the difference is please. I have done it for DL twice but this will be my first time for WDW

 

[ClaraOswald]

Let me know what the difference is please. I have done it for DL twice but this will be my first time for WDW

I actually posted a thread about it earlier today in the Disabilities section of the board if you're interested. Mainly it was just different when it came time to pick advanced ride return times.

From start to finish, it was about 2 hours today.

 

[TCRAIG]

Ok Groupies - need help (again) with dates for 2024 trip…
Since Thanksgiving is so ‘late’ in Nov. next year (28th) - instead of the usual first week of Dec - I booked Nov 16-25 - will I regret it? Will I miss my usual first week? I’m doing a split between BWV and WL…I know there’s no guarantee that either resort will be decorated until the last couple days of the trip….but I also don’t want to cut into so much time in Dec that I can’t enjoy my own Christmas decorations…decisions decisions
I’ll add that I’m spending Thanksgiving at DHHIR with my daughter, SIL, and precious Grand Girls…

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

Ok Groupies - need help (again) with dates for 2024 trip…
Since Thanksgiving is so ‘late’ in Nov. next year (28th) - instead of the usual first week of Dec - I booked Nov 16-25 - will I regret it? Will I miss my usual first week? I’m doing a split between BWV and WL…I know there’s no guarantee that either resort will be decorated until the last couple days of the trip….but I also don’t want to cut into so much time in Dec that I can’t enjoy my own Christmas decorations…decisions decisions
I’ll add that I’m spending Thanksgiving at DHHIR with my daughter, SIL, and precious Grand Girls…

I've been in the 2nd week of November a couple of times. Parks are all decorated and slowly the resorts get there. Christmas parties will be going to0. The one and only thing missing for me vs Dec was Candlelight processional. That still wouldn't stop me from going back in November though as I know I'd get back to see it some other year.

 

[TCRAIG]

I've been in the 2nd week of November a couple of times. Parks are all decorated and slowly the resorts get there. Christmas parties will be going to. The one and only thing missing for me vs Dec was Candlelight processional. That still wouldn't stop me from going back in November though as I know I'd get back to see it some other year.

I hadn’t thought about missing CP…it’s one of my ‘must do’ activities…
Thanks Kat!